FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Notre Dame is happy to be in south Florida with a shot to win
its first national title since 1988.

But after a early season medical scare, Irish linebacker Danny Spond is happy to be playing football at all.

Spond, a junior linebacker from Littleton, Colo., suddenly lost
all feeling on the left side of his body during a morning practice in August,
leaving his teammates and family fearing the worst.

"About halfway through the practice, I started noticing some tingling sensation in my face," Spond recalled, speaking with the media Thursday. "It worked its way down the whole left side of my body. Eventually, I kind of just lost control.

"I was petrified. I had never had anything like that happen to me before. I knew something wasn't right, obviously. I told the trainers right away and they took great care of me."

Spond went to a neurologist at the University of Michigan who gave him good news, however -- the episode was the result of a serious migraine and could be controlled with medication. He missed the first two games of the season, but soon returned to practice and played for the first time this year in the Irish's 20-3 win over Michigan State on Sept. 15.

"We were just wondering if he would ever be able to function regularly
on a daily basis," Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o said. "And then for him to
come out, what was it, a week and a half later and say, 'I'm going to practice,'
we were like, 'Oh Danny, you can just chill, you know. This is life we're
talking about, not just football. Just chill.' But he goes, 'I'm going to get
ready.'"

Spond, a high school quarterback who wears the No. 13 to honor the 13 victims in the 1999 shooting at his alma mater, Columbine High, has made 38 tackles for the Irish from his outside linebacker spot, earning praise from Te'o and Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco, who called him "a stalwart" of the Irish defense.

"In the meeting room, we can always count on Danny Spond answering coach D's hardest questions," Te'o said. "Coach D asks such a hard question and we're sitting there and there's silence, and all of a sudden you hear Danny blurt out an answer as if he knew the whole time and just wanted to see who was going to answer. That's Danny Spond."

When he takes the field with the Irish on Monday, Spond admitted that it'll mean a little more after what he's been through.

"I know in general it means quite a bit to everybody," he said of the game, "but knowing where I've been and the things I've gone through to get to this point, it'll be pretty special."